Thursday, February 12, 2015

Too Much Majora's Mask 3D Marketing

Wow, Nintendo seems to put more money into marketing this remake than into the actual remake. I don't have the game yet, but I'm already sick of it. As much as I love Zelda, with each new release it just gets too much. From the limited special editions, over the hype up to showing everything the game has to offer in advance. And it's all over the place, you can't escape it unless you stay away from the internet.

By now it would be refreshing, if Nintendo simply focused on making a good Zelda game for once without all the bloat surrounding it. Making a good game is all that's necessary. It will sell on reputation alone. Big marketing and internet hype are only necessary for bad games. They had three years for this remake, but it seems like 90% of the budget went into marketing this 14 year old game, but not the actual remake. And that's quite worrisome.

With Ocarina of Time 3D and the Wind Waker HD I was already disappointed that they didn't add any new dungeons or new quests, but at least they made the definitive version of the game. If you have these remakes, there's no reason to go back to the original, because it's all better for the most part. Majora's Mask 3D now added something new for the first time in a 3D Zelda remake with the fishing ponds, but it also looks like they improved lots of things for the worse.

They broke Zora Link, they broke the Ice Arrows and it seems like they also broke the bosses. I'm really worried that you can't use Fierce Deity Link on Gyorg and Twinmold anymore, because of the way they changed these boss fights. But hey, you can use Fierce Deity Link now at the new fishing ponds, yay! Remember, how I wanted them to do more with Fierce Deity Link in the remake? Well, this is not what I had in mind...

And I'm sure that they meant well with changing Zora Link and the Ice Arrows, but it's both a terrible solution, which takes away a lot of the freedom and fun you had in the original game. If you don't know, what I'm talking about: Zora Link can now only swim faster using the electric barrier and the Ice Arrow platforms can only be created in specific spots.

The reviews for this game don't make it better. They all read like reviews from 14 years ago, only with much better scores. But rarely any review cares about the quality of the remake, they only talk about the original game and how great it was. And it certainly is, it's still my one of my absolute favorite games of all time. But the remake did so many things wrong. The only site that got that right, was GameXplain. Definitely check out their review.

As a side note: unlike Ocarina of Time 3D they at least managed to fill the menu with an extra bottle. It always bugged me, how badly the item menu in Ocarina of Time 3D was handled and had open spots, but they did it much better this time. The improved item menu is probably the thing I look forward to the most.

We also didn't hear anything about a 2nd Quest or Hero Mode yet. But if there's one, they probably would have showed it already for their marketing. Or it's simply a lame double damage Hero Mode with nothing else, which they kept as a "surprise". A full blown Master Quest would be a very positive surprise and a must have for every Zelda fan, which is the reason why there won't be one. It would be too good to be true. To lure the Zelda fans, they don't have to make good additions to the game, they only have to make Limited Editions and appeal to their collector's urges.

So, lately it feels like Nintendo has gotten a lot lazier with making games and a lot more aggressive with marketing their products. They might as well call themselves "EA" by now.